Stay for brassiere cups

ABSTRACT

The stay for brassiere cups is made of two flat ring bows of plastic material for surrounding the rear portion of each cup of the brassiere, each ring bow comprising one half-circular element extended by straight arms.

United States Patent 11 1 Tareau 1| 3,747,606 1 July 24,1973

[ STAY FOR BRASSIERE CUPS 22 Filed: July 27,1971

21 App1.No.: 166,489

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data June 8, 1971 France 71/20680 [52]US. Cl.... 128/472, 2/257, 2/258 [51] Int. Cl A41c 3/00, A41c 1/20 [58]Field of Search 128/465, 469, 470, 128/471, 472, 473, 475, 476, 477,480, 485, 2l255-258 [56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS3,035,584 5/1962 Menkel 128/476 3,562,802 2/1971 Avis 128/469 X3,605,753 9/1971 Schwartz 128/476 FOREIGN PATENTS OR APPLICATIONS1,085,245 1/1955 France 128/469 1,194,481 11/1959 France 128/472 216,4417/1961 Australia 128/477 Primary Examiner-Werner H. SchroederAtt0rney-R0bert C. Hauke, Harry R. Dumont et al.

[57] ABSTRACT The stay for brassiere cups is made of two flat ring bowsof plastic material for surrounding the rear portion of each cup of thebrassiere, each ring bow comprising one half-circu1ar element extendedby straight arms.

3 Claims, 9 Drawing Figures Patented July 24, 1973 2 Sheets-Sheet 1Patented July 24, 1973 3,747,606

2 Sheets-Sheet 2 STAY FOR BRASSIERE CUPS Up to now the complete staysfor brassieres, that is the stays surrounding more than half of the rearportion of the brassiere cups or the half circles surrounding the lowerrear portion of a brassiere cup are made of hard and rigid materials,generally metal, which gave a stiffness to the brassiere and constrainedthe breast of the user to lodge into the half-circles, often causing animportant and troublesome and even a painful constraint.

Also an attempt has been made to manufacture complete stays ofhalf-stays from elements made of various materials but none of thobtained products has given satisfaction because either the stay is toosoft and cannot be used efficiently or, most of the time, is too rigidand thus gives an impression of restraint to the user, especially whenshe has to make violent movements, for example when doing gymanastics,when working, or when driving a car.

The present invention copes with said disadvantages by creating eitherhalf-circles with are fixed to the rear portion of brassiere cups, orhalf-stays placed inside the cup, and even complete stays made ofplastic material providing sufficiently stiff but flexible elements,thus sufficiently deformable to avoid any constraint. Besides saidelements are very light and very thin preventinjlthe stay from beingseen even when the brassiere is made of a transparent material, saidcharacteristics preventingthe fabric from being torn; the stay isperfectly adapted to the brassierewhile maintaining the brest of theuser without said user taking notice of the presence of said stay.

According to the invention, the stay is constituted by at least onearcuate support element or ring bow surrounding the rear portion of eachcup of a brassiere, each ring bow comprising one half-circular elementextended by straight end elements or arms, and having a very thinsection, and being made of a flexible deformable and not whirlingplastic material.

According to another characteristics of the invention the ends of thestraight arms of the stay are reinforced.

Other characteristics of the invention are shown in the followingdetailed description.

Embodiments of the invention are shown by way of the examples in theaccompanying drawings.

FIG. 1 is a front view of a ring bow designed to be placed on abrassiere cup.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged view of an end of the ring bow shown on FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is various enlarged cross-section views of the ring bow.

FIG. 4 shows another embodiment of the ring bow.

'FIG. Sis a partial perspective view of an embodiment of the ring bow.

FIG. 6 shows various enlarged cross-sections ofa ring bow containing acore increasingthe strength of the stay.

FIGS. 7 and 8 are respectively a front view and a perspective view of aring bow with a cup, designed to be placed into a brassiere cup.

FIG. 9 is a front view of a complete stay comprixing two ring bows and arigid connecting component, for placing the stay into a brassiere.

On FIG. 1 is shown a ring bow or arcuate support element reinforce therear section of a brassiere cup, said ring bow comprising a lowerhalf-circle la extended by two straight arms or end elements 1b, 1c.Said straight arms can include a central reinforcement 2 made of steelor similar rigid material, or two very thin wires 3,4 made of metal oranother material to make them rigid. Besides, arm 1b has a thinnerportion 5 (see FIG. 2) in which can be bored an aperture or hole 6making easier the fixing of the stay on the upper fore portion of thecup or on the brassiere. Also, in the central rounded portion 1a aredesigned apertures 7, 8, 9, of various shapes, for sewing the stay onthe edge of the cup or on the fabric maintaining the cup to form thebrassiere. Also the half-circle stay 1 can be placed inside an outermetallic circular reinforcement 10 which can be very thin, thusflexible. The circular reinforcement can be made of a very thin metallicbraid. Also the arm 10 can comprise an extension 11 terminated by ajoint 12 for connecting said ring bow l to a next ring bow correspondingto the second cup of the brassiere.

In cross-section, the ring bow 1 can be shaped as represented in FIG. 3under reference numeral 20 (bulged with a central retraction), 21(bulged with a central swelling portion),22 (bulged outside and inside),23 (circular), 24 (with a circular central portion and lateralextensions triangular-shaped), 25 (flat and topped by a round portion),26 (with a circular center and flat wings), 27 (outside bulged, insideincurved), 28 (bulged inside and outside, but having round ends), 29(flat central portion topped by two round portions), 30(lozenge-shaped), 31 (like an I), 32 (as a reversed truncated triangle),33 (flat-shaped with triangular section, said shape being the mostusual), 34 (like a flat blade) or shaped like two small round wires 35.

In FIG. 4 the ring bow comprises a strong sheathed wire 36, integralwith small notches 36a of rectangular shaped section, while in FIG. 5the stay comrpises a tube 37 having a flexible and thin wall.

In some cases, as shown in FIG. 6, the different sections of the ringhow 1 may have the rectangular shape 40 comprising, in the centerthereof, a thin blade which is more rigid and made of a differentmaterial, for example a metallic core 41. In a similar manner, the stay42 comprises two cylindrical and more rigid cores 43 the stay 44comprises two joinedl round portions also includes in the center thereofrigid cores 43 the stay 45, with round section, comprises a central andround core 46 while the stay 47 comprises a central core having arectangular section 48. Finally the stay 49, with round section,comprises a V-shaped core 50.

In FIGS. 7 and 8, the ring bow 60 which is similar to the ring bow shownon FIG. 1, comprises on the-front portion thereof, a small cup 61moulded with said ring bow and designed to stiffen the lower portion ofthe brassiere cup, said special stay could be very useful forprosthesis.

Generally, the stays of FIGS. 1, 7 and 8 are made of a genuine orsynthetic plastic material, flexible and sufficiently oily, in order notto give a. disagreable impress on the skin. It may be usedfor example amaterial known under the trade-mark Makrolon (BAYER CHEMIE). I

Also other materials can be used according to the desired softnessespcially the polyamids, copolymers, polyacetates, polyesters, theinjection and extrusion com-- pounds or blowing compounds-mixed withhardening adjuvents, such as fiber glass, etc.

In FIG. 9 the complete stay represented and designated under referencenumeral 62 has no difference with the ring bow represented on FIG. 1only the central portion 63 is made of one piece. Thus, it is possiblenot only to make rigid the lower inner edge of the two cups of thebrassiere, but also the central portion of the brassiere between the twocups.

The brassieres utilizing such stays are very comfortable because thecups do not suffer from any strain such as warping when the stay isunder operation to follow the breast movements. Besides the disgracefuldistortion of a brassiere is avoided because the stay remains close tothe users body. The mobility of said brassiere avoids any skinirritation since it does not rub the breast but is suitably adapted tothe same, thus allowing the utilization of brassieres with such stays bevery young girls. The lightness of the stay is very important and due tothis, even when the brassiere is worn by a young girl, the breast ofsaid girl can change since the stay does not press on the brassierecups. Besides, said stay is light since it has a weight of only fewgrams against about grams which is the usual weight of the conventionalstays.

It is also to be noticed that said stay can support shocks even due to avery serious accident. Besides said stay can absorb the shock whilemaintaining the breast, thus being especially recommended for sportwomenand female personnel in Armyl The climate conditions have no effect onsaid stay and even upon long time storage or soaking, the stay cannot bedamaged.

All of the above mentioned stays have very thin cross-section, enablingthe same to be provided with the above mentioned advantages and even forthe stays with a rigid core as described on FIG. 6.

Besides said stays can be made by moulding, ensuring a perfectdispersion of the material inside the mould, thus obtaining extremelythin, flexible and light stays.

Before moulding, the material is dried while the mould is preheated.Thus, the obtained stays, though being thin do not make spirals.

The invention is not restricted to the embodiments shown and describedin detail for various modifications thereof can moreover be applied toit without departing from the scope of the invention.

I claim:

1. A support for brassiere cups comprising an arcuate support elementand straight end elements on the opposite ends of said arcuate supportelement, said arcuate support element and said straight end elementsbeing formed of plastic, one of said end elements being provided with anaperture for permitting said support to be fastened to the brassierecup, the opposite end element being provided with an outward extensionhaving ajoint for fastening said support element to a similar joint ofanother arcuate support element.

2. A support as defined in claim 1 and including apertures formed insaid arcuate support element to permit said support element to be sewnin place to the brassiere cup through said apertures.

3. The support as defined in claim 1 and including a cup-like portionintegrally formed with said arcuate support element and extendingoutwardly therefrom to support the lower portion of the brassiere cup.

UNITED STATES PATENT oTTTtT QERTEHQATE W5 QQRREUHGN Patent No. 3 a 506Dated ly 4-, 1973 9 In ent I-( Georges Tareau It is certified that errorappears in the above-identified patent and that said Letters Patent arehereby corrected as shown below:

Col, 1, line 6, delete "are" and insert -wereline 9, delete "to lodgeinto and insert -within--; line 9, delete "an im line 10, delete"portant and" and insert -a-; line 36, after "comprising" insert -a line12, delete "of" (first occurrence) and insert or; line 13, delete "th"and insert the--; line 21, delete "with" and insert -which; line 26,delete "preventinjl" and insert preventingline 39, delete "and notwhirling" line 62, delete "comprixing" and insert -comprising; line 64,delete "On FIG. 1 is shown" and insert FIG. 1 shows--;

line 65, after "ment", insert 1 designed to;

C01. 2, line 4, delete "Besides, arm" and insert Arm,-

line 5, after "making" insert it--;

line 6 delete "the fixing of" and insert -'to fix--;

line 57, delete "give a disagreable impress" and insert ---irritate;

line 58, delete "It may be used for example a" and insert -A-; line 60,after "CI-IEMIE) insert --for example may be used-; 2 line 62, delete"espcially" and insert --especially--; line 67, delete "has nodifference" and insert --is similar to-;

ORM PO-105O (10-69) USCOMM-DC 60376-P69 urs, GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE:I969 0-356-334 X\ U.S., Patent No.: 3,747,606 2 Col 2, line line Col. 3,

line

Signed and sealed (SEAL) Attest:

EDWARD M.FLETCHER,JR. Attesting Officer delete "with'fl;

delete "under operation to fol-" and insert -being worn and isfollowing'; delete "low 7 same line, delete "Besides" and insert--Also--7 delete "be and insert --by--; delete "Besides, said" andinsert ---=Also the-; after "stay" insert ---of the present invention--;delete "due to" and. insert -those caused by-; delete "Besides said andinsert Also the; delete Armyl" and insert -Army7 after "long" insert-periods of-;

delete "described on" and insert -illustrated in--; delete "Besides" andinsert ---Also--; delete "moulding" and insert ---molding-7 delete"mould" and insert -mold--;

delete "moulding" and insert -molding--; delete "mould" and insert--mold--; delete "make" and insert form-- this 19th day of March 1974.

C MARSHALL DANN Commissioner of Patents

1. A support for brassiere cups comprising an arcuate support elementand straight end elements on the opposite ends of said arcuate supportelement, said arcuate support element and said straight end elementsbeing formed of plastic, one of said end elements being provided with anaperture for permitting said support to be fastened to the brassierecup, the opposite end element being provided with an outward extensionhaving a joint for fastening said support element to a similar joint ofanother arcuate support element.
 2. A support as defined in claim 1 andincluding apertures formed in said arcuate support element to permitsaid support element to be sewn in place to the brassiere cup throughsaid apertures.
 3. The support as defined in claim 1 and including acup-like portion integrally formed with said arcuate support element andextending outwardly therefrom to support the lower portion of thebrassiere cup.